Rat Tsongkhapa!

Tuesday 10:30 a.m.
I've been off work for the past two days due to feeling nauseated and going a bit woozy sometimes when I bend down. A typical case of jobbie-itis!

This is for the occasional visitor to this bloggie who comes looking for stuff on tummo, vajrayana, Deity Yoga, the Six Yogas of Naropa, or Tsongkhapa.

Regular readers of this bloggie (hello, Jack and the Alien Creatures from Outer Space!) may remember that Tsongkhapa is the 14th century predecessor of the Dalai Lama. This is straight from A Practice Manual on the Six Yogas of Naropa by him and translated by Glenn Mullin. It's from Readings in the Six Yogas of Naropa.

This is brilliant on emptiness. I'm going to get it printed out and stick it on my wall. Here goes .... if you're the normal perverts who come here looking for hotboys, this blog has been set up as police trap for paedophiles. You can run, but you can't hide!


All Appearances as Illusory

The practice here begins by examining the sense of "I" that we all have.
Examine this "I" to see if it is one with or separate from the psychological aggregates. Eventually you will develop a firm understanding that this "I" had no self-existent nature whatsoever. This is the training on the emptiness side.

However, the conventional existence of the self arises as an object of the mind. This is to say, we have the appearance of living beings as irrefutable conventional phenomena. There are collectors of karma and experiencers of the results of karma. Even though nothing has a self nature, all phenomena conventionally function with validity according to the laws of interdependent arising. Cultivate a definite realisation of how in this way all things are ultimately empty of self-existence but nonetheless conventionally function with valid presence.

Sometimes these two levels of being may seem contradictory. To dispel this illusion, contemplate the metaphor of an image reflected in a mirror. This will generate awareness of their non-contradictory nature. Consider how the reflected image of a face, including the eyes and so forth, are empty of existing in the manner of their appearance. Based on the presence of the actual image that is being reflected, as well as the mirror and the workings of the light, the reflection is created. When one takes away the supporting conditions, such as either the face or the mirror, the image disappears. The two phenomena are interdependent.

The situation with all appearing phenomena is the same. For example, not a single particle within a living being exists to represent a final self, yet living beings collect karmic seeds, experience the results, and take rebirths according to their previously collected karmic seeds and the presence of spiritual distortions within themselves.

Appreciate the non-contradictory nature (of emptiness and relativity) in this way. As soon as you have achieved stability in this realisation, extend the practice to include all objects that appear to the mind.

( This stuff is for monastics going into long retreats to do the Six Yogas of Naropa, so he goes on ... )

Take all forms as manifestations of the deity; because these lack any self-existent nature, see them as illusory appearances; and see the illusions as great bliss. Train in these three awarenesses.


Hmmmm. The Dalai Lama was asked if he'd ever read any western philosophy. He said he'd been given a book, but hadn't got round to reading it yet. He's supposed to be a rebirth of Tsongkhapa. Where's your Thomas Aquinas the noo?

You may be able to get realisations of emptiness through intellectually grasping this kind of stuff. You won't get ra bliss of course. Still, this might help flatheids who are smart, but still too dumb to meditate. May all sentient beings be happy, and that'll be ten percent off the top, please!